Yeah - Ford used to be very popular here in England, their popularity has waned a little. The Ford Focus was the best selling car in England from 1999-2009 - it was ground breaking from its superb suspension design, excellent equipment and spacious interior - even Jeremy Clarkson had a high opinion of it. The combination of the 1.6 zetec engine with the 5 speed was a real winner. But as someone who works on cars and sees plenty of Ford US stuff on the internet European Fords are built in Germany and have much more in common with Audi's. A lot of them were sold with Diesel engines made by PSA (later Stellantis).
The thing that will kill Ford in Europe is they don't make cars anymore, all they do is large SUV's and trucks. A lot of people in Britain were Ford customers for life because their first car was probably a battered old Ford Fiesta and they probably upgraded to a Focus or a Mondeo or a Galaxy when they had more money and then had a family. Of those models the Focus is the only one left and it is discontinued next year. They also started putting ecoboost engines in them with wetbelts which caused a lot of blown up engines.
The main GM brand in Europe was Vauxhall or Opel depending on whether you were in Britain or mainland Europe. They used ecotec engines or Fiat diesels. Some of them were sold in North America under the "Saturn" brand but were very rare. They were kind of shit but a lot of people got them because they were made at Ellesmere port so were essentially a domestic brand. GM sold them to Stellantis to focus on big trucks and SUV's.
Stellantis is a dysfunctional company because it cannot reconcile its European and American market functions it also has way to many brands which compete with each other. It needs to break up into its American part and European part.
Yeah - Ford used to be very popular here in England, their popularity has waned a little. The Ford Focus was the best selling car in England from 1999-2009 - it was ground breaking from its superb suspension design, excellent equipment and spacious interior - even Jeremy Clarkson had a high opinion of it. The combination of the 1.6 zetec engine with the 5 speed was a real winner. But as someone who works on cars and sees plenty of Ford US stuff on the internet European Fords are built in Germany and have much more in common with Audi's. A lot of them were sold with Diesel engines made by PSA (later Stellantis).
The thing that will kill Ford in Europe is they don't make cars anymore, all they do is large SUV's and trucks. A lot of people in Britain were Ford customers for life because their first car was probably a battered old Ford Fiesta and they probably upgraded to a Focus or a Mondeo or a Galaxy when they had more money and then had a family. Of those models the Focus is the only one left and it is discontinued next year. They also started putting ecoboost engines in them with wetbelts which caused a lot of blown up engines.
The main GM brand in Europe was Vauxhall or Opel depending on whether you were in Britain or mainland Europe. They used ecotec engines or Fiat diesels. Some of them were sold in North America under the "Saturn" brand but were very rare. They were kind of shit but a lot of people got them because they were made at Ellesmere port so were essentially a domestic brand. GM sold them to Stellantis to focus on big trucks and SUV's.
Stellantis is a dysfunctional company because it cannot reconcile its European and American market functions it also has way to many brands which compete with each other. It needs to break up into its American part and European part.
I appreciate you sharing, and love this type of history! Thanks!